Children’s Jewish Book Month

Kindling our children's’ Judaism, one book at a time.

Parents today can give themselves a well deserved pat on the back if their children’s fingers are curled around the edges of a paperback instead of a joystick. In today’s age of the amazing vanishing attention span, parents who push reading as a leisure activity are doing a private and a public service by keeping non digital entertainment from going the way of the brontosaurus.

Parents, we can’t ignore the facts. Reading has been proven to boost success both academically and socially. Flipping through paper-ink worlds boosts imagination and helps children to think outside the box. Recent studies in neuroscience have demonstrated that reading aloud to young children actually stimulates brain growth. In short, encouraging reading in your home is one of the greatest gifts that you can give to your child.

But with over 32 million books in the Library of Congress, the art of reading can assume variant forms. If reading is such a life contouring event, shouldn’t we pay attention to what shape our children will be assuming? We need to attend to what our children are reading above and beyond our contentment with the fact that they are reading at all.

In my previous Kidslit column on Aish.com I reviewed a number of books that helped to cultivate positive core values in our children. This is the first crucial step in helping our children to connect with enriching and fun literature. And as Jews who are people of the book, we need to consider how we can nurture our children’s Judaism as well through the powerful medium of good reading.

In a move timed to coincide with National Children’s Book Week, Artscroll Publishers, the leading publisher of Judaic literature, has announced the introduction of Children’s Jewish Book Month. This Jewish themed literature-fest will take place every May in order to get kids excited about books and reading.

Says Rabbi Gedalia Zlotowitz, vice-president of Artscroll ; “Children’s Book Week was conceived 90 years ago as a way to introduce children to the pleasure and value of reading. Children’s Jewish Book Month shares that goal but has the additional objective of introducing Jewish children to the many wonderful books out there that speak to their own culture and tradition.”

In addition to a poster themed campaign and a special 30% discount sale on all children’s books during the month of May, Artscroll has introduced another initiative with their “Write, Draw and Win!” contest, a writing and illustrating contest for Jewish children. Children in more than 70 participating schools have been sending in their submissions on predetermined themes such as “My favorite Jewish book or character, or a five question interview posed to your favorite Jewish book character. Winners of the contest will receive prizes ranging from $200-$500 gift certificates for themselves as well as for their schools – in order to fill their libraries with more wonderful Jewish children’s books. As the submissions flood her desk, Miriam Zakon, Acquisitions Editor of ArtScroll and one of the contest judges, is impressed by many of the submissions;

“I’m having such a good time reading them,” she said. “I’m seeing lots of creativity and imagination (and, yes, plenty of spelling mistakes). We have a sixth-grader writing a time travel story, a short and sensitive piece about the Holocaust and interviews with all sorts of characters from Jewish children’s books. I was particularly touched by a submission from Shifra, a fifth-grader with Down syndrome. Her special ed. teacher explained that Shifra writes on a first grade level, and that she had actually learned many words about feelings, such as ‘jealous’ and ‘embarrassed,’ from a Jewish book. I feel so strongly that reading books is vital for children’s success, and reading Jewish books is what grounds our kids in Jewish values and ethics.”

With the rate of Jewish assimilation hovering around the 50 percent mark, it is vital that parents grasp all strings Jewish and tie them tightly to their children. *Reading Jewish books helps to promote Jewish and religious identity amongst young people. Anyone who has observed the interaction between Jewish children and Jewish books has seen the transformations that can occur as a result of connecting with an idea or a character in a book. As quoted from the New Jewish Values Finder from the Association of Jewish Libraries; “The epiphanies that come with reading can’t be anticipated because they are different for every reader….To encounter, consider and witness the effects of Jewish values in the pages of books, through the experience of characters, in settings sometimes distant and strange and sometimes familiar, is to grow as a human being and as a Jew.”

As such, it is the goal of Children’s Jewish Book Month to promote Jewish values as rooted in the Torah. Says Rabbi Zlotowitz of Artscroll; “When parents purchase books for their children, it sends a message that they consider reading an essential and worthwhile activity. Supplementing their children’s collections with Jewish-themed books sends a message about the importance of Jewish values and ideas as well.”

Artscroll invites Aish.com’s young readers to submit writing and illustration samples for the Write! Draw! & Win! Contest this May. Details are available on www.Artscroll.com

*Some ideas from this paragraph culled from the website of the Association of Jewish Libraries.

Featured at Aish.com:

About the Author

Yael Mermelstein is an award winning author whose stories are studied for the Israeli English matriculation exams and featured in national textbooks. Her book, Izzy the Whiz and Passover McClean was distributed across the U.S. by the PJ Library. She publishes prolifically, most frequently in Binah Magazine. Yael lives in Israel with her family and her pet computer.

The opinions expressed in the comment section are the personal views of the commenters. Comments are moderated, so please keep it civil.

Visitor Comments: 5

(5)
Ronni,
May 21, 2010 3:52 AM

The Problem

I would love to buy more Jewish books but as my kids get older they like them less and less. It seems there's no such thing as simply a fantasy or science fiction type of book that takes place in the context of Jewish culture but without the preachiness. Being a BY graduate myself and having children in yeshivos all day is there such a thing as just relaxing or escaping into a Jewish book? There are very very few of those sad to say so I've pretty much given up.

(4)
Wyman Brent,
May 12, 2010 8:38 AM

Reading is FUNdamental

As someone who will soon open the Vilnius Jewish Library in Lithuania, I am all for encouraging people of any ages to pick up a book and read. I grew up before the internet or cable television and consider myself lucky. Too often these days it seems as if the internet or flipping through channels on the TV is considered a legitimate substitute for picking up a book. Some will say that the internet brings people together. In a way this is true. At the same time, the ideas contained in books have for hundreds and hundreds of years have united, divided, and brought about a lot of thought and debate. In other words, books truly make people think. They had that power long before the internet and still have the same effect today. I would welcome hearing from anyone interested in helping to promote reading and the understanding of Jewish culture in the Jerusalem of the North.
Cheers,
Wyman Brent
shammes
VilniusJewishLibrary@yahoo.com

(3)
Raisy,
May 4, 2010 9:21 PM

Jewish Book List

Binah magazine recently published a leveled book list. It is small but a good place to start. I think it is the April 19th or April 26th issue. You can also call Binah--they can send you the backdated copy with the article.

(2)
Anonymous,
May 3, 2010 7:41 PM

Please advise on finding Jewish book lists

I would be very interested in finding the list of best Jewish books that promote Jewish values with more Orthodox point of view. I would appreciate your advice.

(1)
Raisy,
May 2, 2010 6:52 PM

Developmentally correct

I spent over an hour at Eichler's the Judaica superstore in Boro Park looking through the books. I'm a reading teacher and generally use secular books for my kids. They're leveled. The print is large. Why aren't the Jewish books leveled? The Step Into Reading series of leveled books by Random House are guaranteed winners with even my most reluctant readers. Also 'high interest, low-level" books are important for older (3rd, 4th, 5th grade) struggling readers and I find they prefer non-fiction books. Books about tornadoes, volcanoes, earthquakes, Tiitanic, and such are hits with them.
Why do my students prefer Cam Jansen mysteries (whose author, David Adler, I just discovered is Orthodox)? Any input, comments, advice is welcome.

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I've been striving to get more into spirituality. But it seems that every time I make some progress, I find myself slipping right back to where I started. I'm getting discouraged and feel like a failure. Can you help?

The Aish Rabbi Replies:

Spiritual slumps are a natural part of spiritual growth. There is a cycle that people go through when at times they feel closer to God and at times more distant. In the words of the Kabbalists, it is "two steps forward and one step back." So although you feel you are slipping, know that this is a natural process. The main thing is to look at your overall progress (over months or years) and be able to see how far you've come!

This is actually God's ingenious way of motivating us further. The sages compare this to teaching a baby how to walk. When the parent is holding on, the baby shrieks with delight and is under the illusion that he knows how to walk. Yet suddenly, when the parent lets go, the child panics, wobbles and may even fall.

At such times when we feel spiritually "down," that is often because God is letting go, giving us the great gift of independence. In some ways, these are the times when we can actually grow the most. For if we can move ourselves just a little bit forward, we truly acquire a level of sanctity that is ours forever.

Here is a practical tool to help pull you out of the doldrums. The Sefer HaChinuch speaks about a great principle in spiritual growth: "The external awakens the internal." This means that although we may not experience immediate feelings of closeness to God, eventually, by continuing to conduct ourselves in such a manner, this physical behavior will have an impact on our spiritual selves and will help us succeed. (A similar idea is discussed by psychologists who say: "Smile and you will feel happy.")

That is the power of Torah commandments. Even if we may not feel like giving charity or praying at this particular moment, by having a "mitzvah" obligation to do so, we are in a framework to become inspired. At that point we can infuse that act of charity or prayer with all the meaning and lift it can provide. But if we'd wait until being inspired, we might be waiting a very long time.

May the Almighty bless you with the clarity to see your progress, and may you do so with joy.

In 1940, a boatload 1,600 Jewish immigrants fleeing Hitler's ovens was denied entry into the port of Haifa; the British deported them to the island of Mauritius. At the time, the British had acceded to Arab demands and restricted Jewish immigration into Palestine. The urgent plight of European Jewry generated an "illegal" immigration movement, but the British were vigilant in denying entry. Some ships, such as the Struma, sunk and their hundreds of passengers killed.

If you seize too much, you are left with nothing. If you take less, you may retain it (Rosh Hashanah 4b).

Sometimes our appetites are insatiable; more accurately, we act as though they were insatiable. The Midrash states that a person may never be satisfied. "If he has one hundred, he wants two hundred. If he gets two hundred, he wants four hundred" (Koheles Rabbah 1:34). How often have we seen people whose insatiable desire for material wealth resulted in their losing everything, much like the gambler whose constant urge to win results in total loss.

People's bodies are finite, and their actual needs are limited. The endless pursuit for more wealth than they can use is nothing more than an elusive belief that they can live forever (Psalms 49:10).

The one part of us which is indeed infinite is our neshamah (soul), which, being of Divine origin, can crave and achieve infinity and eternity, and such craving is characteristic of spiritual growth.

How strange that we tend to give the body much more than it can possibly handle, and the neshamah so much less than it needs!